News From Vangold's
Papua New Guinea Properties
Paul the Benjaminite
February 21, 2004
It has taken a quite a bit
longer than expected, but the news of the surveys on Vangold's
(75%) and New Guinea Golds (25%) Feni Island properties is finally
out. The incredible potential of the Feni Islands (Ambitle Island)
was previously reported on in The
Bluest of Blue Sky Potential and in More
Blue Skies Over Feni. These reports explained the combination
of geological circumstances which could mean that Ambitle Island
will turn out to be one of the largest gold deposits in the world,
like its sister island, Lihir. But the news is not limited to
Vangolds Feni Islands Property! The recent acquisition of Kanon
Resources means that Vangold and New Guinea Gold now have a share
in seven exciting and prospective land packages in Papua New
Guinea. Three drilling programs will be in the news within the
next few months on three of these properties with the drills
turning first, on the Ambitle Island and Mt. Penck properties,
both scheduled to begin within weeks!
Ambitle Island
Exploration Results
As expected, the results from
the exploration of the central and southern portions of Ambitle
Island have yielded impressive results. Both the biogeochemical
survey and the stream panned concentrate surveys were conducted
in portions of the Central Caldera and the Old Caldera Zone on
Ambitle Island. (Both calderas are actually volcanic craters.)
The biogeochemical survey started
near the mouth of the Nanum River and the scientists worked their
way up the hill close to the river toward the Central Caldera
sampling along the way. The first priority was the Kabang area
north of the large and intense I.P. anomaly, where drilling and
soil sampling was previously done. Unfortunately, the geologist
heading up the survey fell ill with malaria, and, as a result,
the survey was cut short, and many prospective areas have yet
to be tested. Even the area of the I.P. anomaly was largely untested.
However, the program is likely to be continued sometime within
the next couple of months. Still, enough work was done on the
panned concentrate survey, along with previous evidence collected,
to provide some excellent drill targets.
Dr. David Lindley, Vangold's
lead consulting geologist overseeing the Feni project, reported
the following on the stream panned concentrate survey:
81 panned
concentrate samples were collected. Panned concentrate sampling
was conducted along the Nanum River and its major tributaries.
72% of all panned samples had visible gold.
This must mean
there are numerous sources of gold throughout the approximately
14 square kilometers of the Nanum River Valley. Large areas are
yet to be surveyed.
The radar
image below
has been modified to show the results of the stream panned concentrate
survey, the four highest values found in the biogeochemical survey
and their relationship to the I.P. anomaly, major faults on the
island, and the potassic alteration (displayed in my previous
report).
There are several important
points to be made about the results so far:
The major I.P. anomaly, showing
a major conducting body underground, overlies the junctions of
the major NE-SW trending fault with two NW-SE faults. Previous
stream panned concentrate surveys in the northern part of the
central crater with high values are shown as orange dots. The
I.P. anomaly is also open to the north in the same general area.
However, this map strongly suggests that the greatest prospects
are in the southern crater, where the I.P. anomaly is open to
the south, southeast and southwest, and is highly correlated
with the highest values of the intense potassic alteration.
This high potassium in the soil is often associated with gold
ore as it is in the area of the Louise Caldera of Lihir Island
where some 50 million ounces in reserves have been proven up.
Judging from the size of this alteration, the potential exists
to find a huge gold deposit. The other colored dots indicate
significant values in the recent surveys. The following picture
gives a closer look at the southern crater in the Nanum River
Valley.
The golden yellow, red, magenta
and blue dots show the relative amounts of gold, from highest
to lowest respectively, found in the steam panned concentrate
survey. (Values below 1 ppm are not shown, though anything above
0.1 ppm (ppm = g/t) is considered to be anomalous.) Most of the
blue dots are along the main river and show the widespread occurrence
of gold. It is more significant when high levels of gold are
associated with a spring rather than a main river or a large
creek, because it shows that the gold is coming up from the ground
below rather than having come from upstream. Highly significant,
therefore, is the spring found in the area indicated by the golden
yellow dot. Gold values in that area ranged to as high as 1,710
ppm! The nearby green dot from the biogeochemical survey
confirms the presence of high values of gold there. It is within
the area of the high potassic alteration, too. Although the I.P.
survey did not go that far south, the graph shows that the I.P.
anomaly was intensifying in that direction. High gold in pan
values also occurred in the area indicated by the red dot with
values up to 395 ppm.
The most intense portion of
the I.P. anomaly, which shows up as the orangish-red area is
some 650 meters long by 280 m wide at its largest dimensions..
How deep is the mineralization at the I.P. anomaly? The manner
in which the I.P. survey was performed on Ambitle (150 m spaced
dipole array) allows a conducting body to be detected at a maximum
of about seventy five meters in depth. Considering the combined
evidence, it appears that there is a large gold deposit 75 meters
deep or less. Of course, it could go much deeper than that. Deep
drilling through this area might be able to reach all the way
down to the much larger area detected as the aeromagnetic
anomaly, which may be a lower grade pyrite and gold deposit.
Clearly there are widespread
gold occurrences on the island. The aeromagnetic anomaly and
potassic alteration show that a extensive mineralization exists
in the southern portion of the Nanum River valley, but it is
not known if it is near enough to the surface and or if it is
high enough grade to be mined. The I.P. anomaly and high values
in the stream panned concentrate and biogeochemical surveys indicate
areas where hydrothermal enrichment, or feeder zones, from a
deeper deposit exists. Deep drilling will determine if these
zones are economical to mine. It will also determine if the large
underlying deposit can be mined, and, in a word, if Ambitle Island
really is another Lihir!
Preparations are underway to
begin drilling several of the many drill targets. A camp has
already been completed which will house the drill crews, geological
staff and other workers. The drill contract has been awarded,
and drilling is scheduled to begin by the end of this month.
At the same time, additional survey work will take place. The next few months
will be exciting times for Vangold and its shareholders!
The Kanon
Properties
During the precious metals
bear market, the less savvy mining companies found themselves
out of business. The smarter managers found ways to survive even
if it meant becoming a dot-com business for a while. The most
able management teams, however, knew that the bear market was
merely a cyclical bottom and that precious metals would be back
in vogue in a few years. So they spent the time acquiring cheap
or abandoned precious metal properties with inherent value. This
is exactly what the managers of Kanon Resources Ltd did. They
went cherry picking throughout Papua New Guinea grabbing up the
best and most prospective properties available. Papau New Guinea,
with its unique geology, having two fracture zones going through
it, has had quite a lot of geological activity past and present.
It hosts some of the largest gold deposits in the world. All
of the Kanon properties were selected for their potential to
be multimillion ounce resources. Vangold and New Guinea Gold,
through Kanon Resources, have a share in the "crème
de la crème" of Papua New Guineas exploration
properties!
At the time that Kanon was
acquired by Vangold and New Guinea Gold, Kanons huge properties
totaled to 1399 square kilometers (139,900 hectares) which is
just over 0.3% of the entire land area of Papua New Guinea
or the equivalent of about 52% of the land area of the state
of Rhode Island in the United States or almost 25% of the land
area of Prince Edward Island in Canada!
There were five properties
in the original package. However, since that time, the management
of Kanon has agreed to a 50:50 joint venture with NGG in one
of the previously held NGG properties, Mt. Nakru. Since Vangold
has a 50% interest in Kanon, that gives Vangold an effective
25% in Mt. Nakru. So, including the Feni Islands, Vangold has
an interest in seven properties in Papua New Guinea now!
Both VAN and NGG had the right
to increase their interest in one of the initial Kanon properties
to 60% by funding the first $300,000 worth of exploration, which
NGG opted to do with regards to the Mt. Penck property. As it
currently stands then, here is the interest each company holds
in the seven projects:
|
VAN |
NGG |
Feni Islands |
75% |
25% |
Bismarck |
50% |
50% |
Mt. Penck |
40% |
60% |
Allemata |
50% |
50% |
Fergusson |
50% |
50% |
Yup River |
50% |
50% |
Mt. Nakru |
25% |
75% |
An estimated $15 to $17 million
dollars (Australian or Canadian) has been spent on exploring
these properties. Based on the amazing widespread results obtained
so far, it can be truly said that all of these properties have
the potential to host rich sources of gold, while especially
Mt. Penck, Yup River and Bismarck have the potential to
be another Porgera-like find!
I asked Peter McNeil, Managing
Director of Kanon, to send me more information about the properties
owned by Kanon. These properties contain over 60 areas
of proven anomalous mineralization! The vast majority are gold
properties but some also contain silver, platinum group metals,
copper, and/or other base metals. They range from findings with
high grade veins to large lower grade prospects with bulk tonnage
potential. Some have had only minimal work done on them, but
have already produced promising results with discoveries of gold
in veins, soil or streams. Others have had enough work done on
them to begin diamond drilling. Some already have inferred resources.
The detailed data that Mr. McNeil sent me pertaining to these
properties and the discoveries and work already done on them,
excluding the numerous maps, filled some 22 pages of A-4 size
(standard letter size) paper! There is no way that a 3000 word
report like this one can do justice to the discoveries already
made and catalogued. Considering in more detail the vast extent
of past work performed and the results obtained on just 1 of
6 Kanon properties, should aptly illustrate the excellent potential
of all of the properties
Of the five original properties
of Kanon, three are not rectangular blocks of land, but are irregularly
shaped to include only known mineralized areas. All have been
selected to cover highly prospective land areas.
The Bismarck
Property (Vangold 50%)
Consider the map of the 206.2
square kilometer Bismarck property below:
The entire licensed area stretches
for approximately 55 km from its SE to NW corner. Why
does it have this unusual boundary shape and the sixteen names
of locations within it? It is because the property has been carefully
selected for known gold occurrences and to cover the entire Bismarck
Fault Zone. There are sixteen areas with known gold anomalies
and a total of some A$6 million has already been spent on exploring
this property. The most advanced work within this property has
been done at the Tekim and Semben Projects. The Bismarck property
is about 100 km NE of the 25 million ounce Porgera Mine and the
Tekim project is geologically similar. Access is by air only.
Here are some highlights:
Tekim
- A 1400 meter long gold in
soil zone
- A large magnetic anomaly
- Trenching of 20 m of 6.99
g/t Au, 90 m of 1.42 g/t, 75 m of 1.0 g/t and 25 m of 4.8 g/t
- Five shallow diamond drill
holes revealed wide zones of low-grade mineralization including
80 m of 1.5 g/t, within which is a gold oxide zone of 29 m of
2.1 g/t and a high grade area of 0.75 m of 23 g/t Au
- Gold in soil up to 18.8 g/t
and in rocks up to 5.8 g/t
- Ready for drilling
Semben
- Quartz dike with high grade
gold veining
- Within a 700 meter long structure
that appears to be about 3 km long in aerial photographs
- Trenching revealed 3 m of
156 g/t, 4.5 m of 23.5 g/t and 2.0 m of 17.0 g/t with coarse
gold
- Four diamond drill holes showed
gold in quartz veins with 0.75 m at 23.5 g/t containing 8.2 m
of 3.4 g/t Au
- Ready for further drilling
M'Sende
- Rich amounts of gold in streams
in 23 of 26 samples draining an area of roughly 4 square kilometers
- Panned concentrates to 30.9
g/t and 76.1 g/t Au
Kurapali
- Trenching showed 17 m of 1.2
g/t Au including 5 m of 2.1 g/t 3.8 g/t in an outcrop
Awale
- Anomalous gold in soil over
a large 1 km by 0.4 km area
- Rock samples up to 10.7 g/t
Au
- A channel sample of chalcedonic
quartz showed 3.33 g/t Au over 5 meters
- No trenching done on soil
anomalies yet
Yorolam
- Rock chip samples up to 43.2
g/t of gold
Giwi
- An area of roughly 600 m by
500 m with 500 ppm copper with low grade gold (max. 0.94 g/t)
- Rock chip samples average
0.15% copper with a maximum of double that
Irak
- Rock samples up to 9.6 g/t
gold and 2.8% copper
- Average of copper in rock
samples was 0.3%
Irib
- Rock chip samples up to 6.7
g/t Au
- Copper in significant grades
Norin
- Rock chip samples up to 1.5%
copper and 1.1 g/t gold
These are only 10 of the 16
prospects within the Bismarck Property.
See Bismarck
Gold Property for additional details.
Space does
not permit this kind of detail to be given about all of Kanon's
Papua New Guinea properties. But each of them has produced similarly
excellent and widespread results. Drilling on
Bismarck is to begin the second quarter of 2004.
Following is a brief discussion
of the other five Kanon properties.
The Mt. Penck
Property (Vangold 40%)
- 101.4 square kilometers
- 6 major prospects
- Major prospects within an
area 1.5 km by 0.8 km
- Near the sea coast (1.5 km
away) making sea transport possible
- New Guinea Gold to begin drilling
first quarter 2004
The Kavola East Prospect
has produced tremendous results in the June 2003 trenching program
showing extensive gold mineralization right on the surface..
Highlights include the following:
Trench # 1 - 97 meters at 3.39 g/t Au
Trench # 4 - 131 meters at 2.36 g/t Au
Trench # 11 - 88 meters at 2.5 g/t Au
Drilling highlights at Kavola
East thus far:
- 55 m at 2.75 g/t gold
- 15 m at 11.73 g/t gold
- 40 m of 8.89 g/t gold
Early results: minimum inferred
resources at 50 m in depth or less: 100,000 oz. of gold at 2.1
g/t Au.
Excellent results from the
other five prospects within the Mt. Penck Property. Drilling
to begin this quarter.
See The
Mt. Penck Gold Property
The Yup River
Property (Vangold 50%)
- 378.6 square kilometers
- Exploration is still at the
basic stage, but promising results have been produced
- Extensive reconnaissance sampling
has defined three large and one smaller, coherent high-grade
anomalies, plus numerous smaller ones.Peter McNeils report
- Three large anomalies named
Yumor, Amanab and Biaka
- Amanab anomaly is 20 km long
by an average of 3 km wide
- Biaka anomaly is 15 km long
by an average of 4 km wide
- Yumor anomaly is over 6 km
long
For these three properties,
stream sediment measured at up to 107 g/t, 91 g/t, and 77.5 g/t
respectively.
Property selected to include
only areas of known mineralization.
Road access is limited. Access
by plane to three government airstrips within the property.
See The
Yup River Gold Prospect
The Mt. Allemata
Property (Vangold 50%)
- 243.4 square kilometers
- 15 prospective areas with
good results so far
- Historically, 14,000 oz. gold
mined from high grade veins
- Trenching in many areas produced
medium to high grade results over significant distances: Such
as 30 meters at 9 g/t Au; 3.5 m of 61.5 g/t; 20 m of 5.58 g/t
Twelve drill holes showed medium
grade mineralization from the surface.
- Gold vein rock sample: 1 m
of 70 g/t
- Pan concentrates up to 91.3
g/t
- Good access by road, air and
sea
See The
Mt. Allemata Gold Project
The Fergusson
Property (Vangold 50%)
- 469.8 square kilometers
- More than 32 prospective areas
- Access by boat
- Wide spread low to high grade
near surface mineralization
- Property carefully selected
to include only known mineral occurrences
See The
Fergusson Property
The Mt. Nakru
Property (Vangold 25%)
- 47 square kilometers
- Mt. Nakru has widespread medium
to low grade copper accompanied by low grade gold with potential
for higher grade finds
Vangolds market capitalization,
fully diluted, at C$0.65 per share is a mere C$19.4 million (US$14.7
million) and, with its share in these seven PNG properties it
is obviously considerably undervalued. Vangold also derives significant
income from its interest in an oil and gas project, and has important
high grade gold properties in Canada and the United States.
Disclosure:
We own shares
of Vangold. I was compensated by Vangold for my time in preparing
this report. The opinions expressed in this report are my own.
Paul the
Benjaminite
February 21, 2004
Paul the Benjaminite, B.S., A.S., completed seven years of university
studies including such diverse subjects as chemistry and business.
He is a teacher whose professional experience includes eight
years as a secondary school teacher of sciences including chemistry,
physics and basic geology.
321gold Inc
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